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Medical Research Program
The Hearing Foundation of Canada is the largest Canadian non-governmental funders of research into all aspects of hearing loss, and we are very proud of our small but growing program of grants and support to researchers.
While other medical conditions have benefited from significant research-driven advances, we have seen only modest growth in our knowledge of how hearing works, how it is damaged, and how it can be repaired. In the early years of the 21st century, hearing loss in adults remains permanent and irreversible.
The Hearing Foundation currently invests over $150,000 annually to support medical research into different areas of hearing loss. Over the past several years, this has led to a number of promising studies about a variety of topics, including:
- The role that mitochondrial DNA plays in age-related hearing loss;
- How the brain changes to compensate for deafness in one ear;
- How frequency compression technology may help develop better hearing aids for children with hearing impairment; and
- How age-related changes in brain function affect hearing.
While we have been proud to support such research in the past, we believe we can do much more. Our challenge is to build on our strengths and relationships with the country’s top researchers, and ensure that our support for medical research increases and is directed where it can have the most impact.
To that end, we envision a program that is focused around key themes and supports the best, most promising research.
We are now building a program that links researchers across Canada in a community of practice where top scientific minds in the country gather to discuss common themes and focus on advancing our knowledge. We want to be able to communicate our research findings as well as general information about hearing loss to the growing number of Canadians who will be affected by it in the coming years. We want our research funding to encourage the next generation of researchers to choose hearing loss from the variety of areas in which they could potentially specialize.
Is the Future Here? - Inner Hair Cell Regeneration Initiative
Perhaps one of the most exciting areas of research is hair cell regeneration. located in the cochlea, hair cells are the sensory receptors of the inner ear, and a key component of the hearing system. Damage to hair cells can be caused by over-exposure to noise, ototoxic drugs, disease, and aging – resulting in permanent hearing loss and sometimes balance disorders. Research into hair cell regeneration is now underway at institutions in the U.S and in Britain.
According to researchers at the University of Washington, promising work has been done in birds, and with some success, in mice, suggesting hair cell regeneration is possible. It may take another five to twenty years before we know if this is indeed possible in humans, though.
In the meantime, it is imperative that we continue to encourage research into all areas of hearing loss should hair cell regeneration not work. |
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